In the Works: PTA, Wong, Mann, and More
The week starts off with a new trailer (embedded below), poster, and, via Jordan Raup at the Film Stage, an official synopsis for Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread:
Set in the glamour of 1950s post-war London, renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) are at the center of British fashion, dressing royalty, movie stars, heiresses, socialites, debutants and dames with the distinct style of The House of Woodcock. Women come and go through Woodcock’s life, providing the confirmed bachelor with inspiration and companionship, until he comes across a young, strong-willed woman, Alma (Vicky Krieps), who soon becomes a fixture in his life as his muse and lover. Once controlled and planned, he finds his carefully tailored life disrupted by love. With his latest film, Paul Thomas Anderson paints an illuminating portrait both of an artist on a creative journey, and the women who keep his world running. Phantom Thread is Paul Thomas Anderson’s eighth movie, and his second collaboration with Daniel Day-Lewis.
As IndieWire’s Eric Kohn reports, Wong Kar-wai spoke a bit about Tong Wars, the series he’s working on for Amazon, at the Lumière Festival in Lyon: “The thing that attracted me to this project was the first opportunity to tell the story of the first Chinese-American experience in the most authentic and proper way, because I think there aren’t many films about this experience.” The story spans from 1905 to 1971. Kohn notes that Wong is also still working on Blossoms, a feature film first announced in 2015. Based on Jin Yuchen’s novel, “the story follows the lives of Shanghai residents from the end of China’s Cultural Revolution in the early 60s through the end of the 20th century, with some scenes set in San Francisco.”
Tony Zierra was working on SK13, a documentary about the making of Eyes Wide Shut (1999), when he met Leon Vitali, “who served for decades as Stanley Kubrick’s right-hand man,” as Ed Meza explains in Variety. Zierra’s portrait of Vitali became Filmworker, which premiered in Cannes. Now Zierra’s getting back to work on SK13: “The one movie that I feel is the wrinkle in Kubrick’s filmography is Eyes Wide Shut. The people that love him always say, ‘He’s a genius, but I’m not sure what the hell that movie was about.’”
In Libération,Julien Gester’s got Michael Mann talking about a project he’s been handed called Comanche. Set in 1871, it is, he says, essentially the story told in The Searchers, that of Cynthia Ann Parker, only without the liberties taken by Alan Le May in his 1954 novel adapted for John Ford’s 1956 film. In the meantime, Mann says he remains “very committed” to his film about Enzo Ferrari set in 1957, “a pivotal year in his life.” That interview comes by way of the Playlist’s Kevin Jagernauth.
Citing another interview in French, Léa Bodin’s with Tilda Swinton for AlloCiné, Jagernauth notes that Swinton emphasizes that Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria, starring herself, Chloë Grace Moretz, Dakota Johnson, and Mia Goth, will not be a “remake” of Dario Argento’s 1977 classic, but rather “a completely different movie! It’s inspired by the same story, but it goes in different directions.” Jessica Harper, who starred in Argento’s film, is also cast in Guadagnino’s.
Pablo Trapero (The Clan) “will direct Martina Gusmán (Lion’s Den) and Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) in La Quietud, an intimate family drama turning on two sisters’ reencounter and attempt at closure on a common troubled past,” reports Variety’s John Hopewell.
Rupert Goold will direct Renee Zellweger as Judy Garland in Judy, “the true story of the singer and actress’ final concerts in London,” reports Deadline’s Nancy Tartaglione.
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